LOS ANGELES — After a handful of expensive summer flops, lower-cost movies such as the $50
million
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues are lighting up the screen for studio executives, who
are cautiously predicting a second straight record year.

Ticket sales at theaters in the United States and Canada started slowly at the beginning of
2013. Even with the summer hits
Iron Man 3 and
Despicable Me 2, revenue for the year was running 0.3 percent lower than last year through
July 26, according to data from Rentrak, after bombs such as
The Lone Ranger.

But, starting in

August, box-office

receipts pulled ahead of last year’s pace — helped by late-year surprises such as the
civil-rights story
The Butler and the hostage thriller
Captain Phillips, which were made for $55 million or less and had ticket sales of more
than $100 million each. They were joined by the comedies
We’re the Millers and
Bad Grandpa.

The 3-D space thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney was expected to take in

$50 million to $70 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters but defied projections to rake in $253
million.

Gravity, which cost about $100 million to make, ranks sixth on this year’s list of
highest-grossing movies at domestic theaters — ahead of big-budget action hits such as
Fast & Furious 6 and
Star Trek Into Darkness, which cost at least $160 million apiece to make.

Higher ticket prices also helped. The average price climbed 11 cents this year to $8.05.